Tfie School House QS cc 
Communl^ Cenier 



arei 



WasKington. D.C. 
March. /9/C. 






The School House as 
a Community Center 

BY 

MARGARET WOODROW WILSON 



SERIES II, NO. 9, MARCH, I916 




AMERICAN CIVIC ASSOCIATION 

GENERAL OFFICES 
UNION TRUST BUILDING, WASHINGTON, D. C. 

Monograph 



American Civic Association 



President 
J. HORACE McFARLAND, Harrisburg, Pa. 

First Vice-President 
JOHN NOLEN, Cambridge, Mass. 

Treasurer 
WILLIAM B. HOWLAND, New York City 

Secretary 
RICHARD B. VVATROUS, Washington, D. C. 

Vice-Presidents 
MISS MARGARET WOODROW WILSON, Washington, D. C. 
ARNOLD W. BRUNNER, New York City 
GEORGE B. DEALEY, Dallas, Texas 
J. C. NICHOLS, Kansas City, Mo. 
MRS. EDWARD W. BIDDLE, Philadelphia, Pa. 
J. LOCKIE WILSON, Toronto, Canada 
CLINTON ROGERS WOODRUFF, Philadelphia, Pa. 



Executive Board 



Mrs. Elmer E. Black, New York City 

Miss Mabel T. Boardman, Washing- 
ton, D. C. 

Miss H. M. Dermitt, Pittsburgh, Pa. 

Charles M. Dow, Jamestown, N. Y. 

Morton D. Hull, Chicago, 111. 

Thomas H. Martin, Tacoma, Wash. 

Henry B. F. Macfarland, Washing- 
ton, D. C. 

Miss Louise Klein Miller, Cleve- 
land, Ohio 

Enos Mills, Estes Park, Col. 

Frederick Law Olmsted, Brookline, 
Mass. 



Lee J. Ninde, Fort Wayne, Ind. 

Mrs. Percy V. Pennybacker, Austin, 
Tex. 

Dr. Charles G. Plummer, Salt Lake 
City, Utah 

Rev. a. H. Scott, Perth, Canada 

Mrs. John Dickinson Sherman, 
Chicago, 111. 

Howard Strong, Minneapolis, Minn. 

T. C. Thompson, Chattanooga, Tenn. 

Rev. John Van Schaick, Jr., Washing- 
ton, D. C. 

Prof. Frank A. Waugh, Amherst, 
Mass. 



Address all general communications 

to the Main Office of the Association 

UNION TRUST BUILDING 

WASHINGTON, D. C. 



American Civic Association 

SERIES II, NO. 9 MARCH, I916 

THE SCHOOL HOUSE AS A 
COMMUNITY CENTER 

BY 

MARGARET WOODROW WILSON 

Paper read by Miss Wilson, as presiding officer at the session 
devoted to the School as a Community Center, at the 
Eleventh Annual Convention of the American Civic 
Association, Washington, D. C, December 29, 1915. 

Upon taking the chair Miss Wilson said: 
"In the eastern part of our country the general 
conception of a social center is very vague and 
one-sided. Everywhere, because of the spread of 
the recreation movement for children and the use 
of school property for this purpose, the object of 
the social-center movement has been very much 
misunderstood. I find that nine out of ten persons 
in this part of the country, when the social-center 
movement is mentioned, will exclaim, 'Oh yes, 
games and dancing in the school buildings, fine 
idea!' or else, 'Yes, I understand, night schools.' 
In the West it is different. There the idea of 
making public-school buildings centers of com- 
munity life and self-government has become, on 
the whole, quite clear and definite, especially in 
Wisconsin, where Mr. Ward has done such splendid 
work. Of course I do not mean to show a lack of 
respect for the recreation movement or for a night 

3 



THE SCHOOL HOUSE AS 



school; one has been life-saving and the other is a 
splendid extension of the regular program of our 
public schools. I am simply trying to differentiate 
between several ideas about the wider use of 
school buildings. 

"The social-center idea is indeed educational, 
but in a much wider sense than that in which 
academicians conceive of education. It includes 
the idea of growth and education through self- 
government. Such education must come through 
'citizens going to school to one another.* 

"Then just what is the object of the social- 
center movement? It is this — to make every 
school building in the United States the meeting 
and voting place of the citizens of the school dis- 
trict, associated in one non-partisan, non-exclu- 
sive organization. I take for granted that every 
woman, as well as every man, in this country, will 
be a citizen in the sense of having the franchise; 
but women must not wait for the franchise before 
sitting in these new people's assemblies — they 
are very much needed there right away. The 
object of these people's assemblies shall be to 
deliberate periodically on all questions on which 
they vote, and to promote in more direct ways the 
life and happiness of the neighborhood, and of the 
city or town. 

"You see the first object of these assemblies 
will be to become as intelligent as possible about 
the public questions which are affected by their 
votes, and more intelligent in the choice of their 
representatives — those who ultimately decide 
these questions. The second object of these 
people's assemblies will perhaps be more interest- 

4 



A COMMUNITY CENTER 



ing than the first, because it will involve more 
action and creative power on the part of the mem- 
bers of the organizations. Our school buildings 
ought to be centers of social enterprise and coopera- 
tion; places where, as in universities that are really 
free, everything shall be considered from the point 
of view of its real value — its real value to the com- 
munity and to the world. All kinds of wonderful 
ideas will spring from the free soil of these centers. 
Why could not such neighborhood organizations 
be the backers and promoters of art and science 
in every form ? Why could they not be as powerful 
in their spiritual influence and practical inventive- 
ness as the parish church was in the days when the 
church was the promoter of art and science? 

"It seems to me that a town or city organized in 
the way and with the purposes that I have out- 
lined, could show the way for world organization. 
Let me quote here a significant sentence from a 
new book by my friend Charles Ferguson, the 
author of 'The Religion of Democracy' and 'The 
University Militant.* 

" 'To a real American woman it should be plain 
that the way to make peace on a grand scale is 
first to work out a vital community of interest on a 
small scale in an American town, and then to 
extend the living institution and principles of that 
concord to the state and nation — and to the 
whole world.' I think that this should be plain to 
the real men of our country, too. 

"No partisan or private body ought to be 
allowed to use a public-school building unless 
invited to do so by the organization of neighbors 
whose community home it is. All citizens of this 

5 



THE SCHOOL HOUSE AS 



country shall have one place in their community 
where, not in the spirit of partisanship, but in the 
free spirit of truth, all things of interest and 
importance to the community may be discussed. 

"I am reminded here of another misconception 
of the social center movement; it is this — that 
thousands of halls will be thrown open rent free, 
for the use of any public-spirited organizations 
that happen to interest boards of education. 
Don't you see that if this happens the school 
buildings cannot become free and democratic 
community homes, but will become the homes of 
faddists of every description ? Of course the assem- 
blies of citizens will now back this project, and will 
use their buildings for the promotion of such pro- 
jects. They will make some mistakes, but that is a 
very different thing from the giving over of the 
school buildings to private or party organizations. 
One idea spells confusion, the other coordination 
and construction. We can prevent the first idea 
from taking hold by insisting on our right to 
designate the use of our own buildings instead of 
letting boards of education decide for us who shall 
use them. 

"We ought to make our centers as authentic 
and abiding as the Capitol at Washington. This 
can be done only if they are provided for in the 
same dignified way in which all other machinery of 
government is provided for; that is, by means of 
public monies through taxation. 

"Let us make our public-school buildings vital 
centers of our communities. On all sides now we 
see sabotage of every description. The purpose of 
community centers shall be creation instead of 

6 



A COMMUNITY CENTER 



destruction. Instead of death we shall have life, 
and life in more abundance." 

After the applause had subsided, Miss Wilson 
further said in opening the meeting: 

"I have the pleasure of introducing to you now 
a great-hearted woman, a loyal member of the 
human family, a dear friend of the world, the 
Marchioness of Aberdeen." 



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